Definitely a Day of the Dead

Was up a little bit late last night making use of the final few moments of Call to Arms: Arathi Basin on the Horde Rogue. I haven't laughed and ganked that hard in ages.

It began on the Exodar server when Pro finally hit level 36. Decided to try some Warsong Gulch. Her gear is quite horrible yet I hoped the level might be enough to not get insta-gibbed. Boy was I wrong. Rogues were eating my cookies left and right.

I had heard in Aenara's guild that Rogues were the scourge of the lower brackets and that's sure not an understatement. They mentioned mutilate so I spec'd that on Unpleasant yet it didn't seem that OP. Dragonsblitz and Gorestep showed me the error of my ways... it was Subtlety that was insanity. I thought the problem was not having Flare yet it would be useless against Shadowstep. While they could see my traps at 32 they couldn't disarm them. Yet it didn't help me much.

There is incredible synergy at very low levels in the Subtley tree:

• Shadowstep (25 yd range, Instant) Causes you to step through the shadows and appear behind an enemy target. Your next Ambush or Garrote delivered within 10 sec will deal 30% additional damage, and your movement speed is increased by 70% for 3 sec.
• Master of Subtlety (Passive) Attacks made while stealthed and for 6 seconds after breaking stealth cause an additional 10% damage.
• Sinister Calling (Passive) Increases your total Agility by 25% and increases the percentage damage bonus of Backstab and Hemorrhage by an additional 25%.
• Improved Ambush (Rank 3) Increases the critical strike chance of your Ambush ability by 60% and its damage by 15%.
• Waylay (Rank 2) Your Ambush and Backstab hits have a 100% chance to unbalance a target, increasing the time between their melee and ranged attacks by 20%, and reducing movement speed by 50% for 8 sec.
• Opportunity (Rank 3) Increases the damage dealt with your Backstab, Mutilate, Garrote and Ambush abilities by 30%.
• Hemorrhage (35 Energy, Melee Range, Instant, Requires Melee Weapon) An instant strike that deals 110% weapon damage (159.5% if a dagger is equipped) and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 1 min. Awards 1 combo point.
• Ambush (60 Energy, Melee Range, Instant, Requires Melee Weapon, Requires Stealth) Ambush the target, causing 190% weapon damage plus (330 * 1.9) to the target (274.93% plus (330 * 2.75) if a dagger is equipped). Must be stealthed and behind the target. Awards 2 combo points.

It's a lot to take in yet it plays incredibly well. And it's all available to a Rogue at 29. In fact most of it is available through the 20s, with Hemorrhage and Waylay or Opportunity coming at the end. In the 30s it's ridiculous.

Core talents and abilities aside, one Prime, one Major, and one Minor glyph slot become available at level 25. And there are some really sweet ones available to compliment the devastation:

• Glyph of Hemorrhage (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 29) Your Hemorrhage ability also causes the target to bleed, dealing 40% of the direct strike's damage over 24 sec.
• Glyph of Backstab (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 25) Your Backstab critical strikes grant you 5 energy.
• Glyph of Eviscerate (Prime Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the critical strike chance of Eviscerate by 10%.
• Glyph of Ambush (Major Glyph, Item Level 25) Increases the range on Ambush by 5 yards.
• Glyph of Gouge (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Your Gouge ability no longer requires that the target be facing you.
• Glyph of Vanish (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the duration of your Vanish effect by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Sprint (Major Glyph, Requires Level 25) Increases the movement speed of your Sprint ability by an additional 30%.
• Glyph of Blurred Speed (Minor Glyph, Requires Level 25) Enables you to walk on water while your Sprint ability is active.

So many great choices! Hemorrhage would be useful against other rogues and druids, keeping them out of stealth. Ambush and Backstab are expensive moves so Backstab, when landing, would get you a little extra for another. Eviscerate would help ensure a big finisher (if needed, heh). Ambush would make Ambushing a mounted target is even easier. Since Blind isn't available until 34, Gouge could fill the gap. Vanish would give you more breathing room to escape with. Sprint would help you escape while Blurred Speed would make escape in Arathi Basin easier. Wow! Naturally I logged out and went back to Azjol-Nerub. After respecing for 53s, I threw Unpleasant out there to see what was what.

It went as well as all the whining indicated. It was astonishing the damage that was unleashed. Unfortunately I was half-way through 29, so after a win and a loss, I leveled into the 30 bracket. It is always rough to be at the bottom of the bracket plus other players often jeer at the flotsam dragging the team down, but I was on a rush and had to see what could be done. I managed to deal out more death than I expected. Unfortunately it's easy for the higher-level enemies to see through stealth so I had to be at the top of my game. The kills I got were a real testament to skill and timing. The best one I got was at level 31 where I one shot a 39 Warlock that was mounting up. She had over 1600 health which didn't seem to even be there. For a kill like that to be possible with an eight level disparity definitely says there something out of wack. Yet I understand it must be rough on Blizzard to balance a class through their level progression. Glad I got all this down for posterity as I'm sure something will get hot fixed.

While the rogue is fierce, it's not all a cake walk. All the usual requirements are there… catch someone unaware with as few friends around as possible while your cooldowns are all ready and theirs are down. And as at all the lower brackets the BoA gear can make an incredible difference. Currently the worst targets are the DoT casters and the mail-wearers. If you don't one-shot them things get dicey. While Shadow Priests are painful, 4.x Warlocks are devastating. Bane of Doom can now be cast on players. It lasts FOREVER (one minute, heh) and does a TON of damage. A quick reacting paladin that survives will usually Lay on Hands then try to slam a Hammer of Justice on you. Those two have been the most troublesome survivors of a failed one-shot for me.

As realization has dawned on everyone the play-style has suffered. Rogues summarily ignore flag groups and swim out mid-field looking for targets. So there were a few games that ended 0-0 because no one could survive the onslaught since no one would support the flag carrier. Lot of people leaving games in a huff but whatever. I am there to gank not help the team. *snicker* I am just one of the sharks looking for chum.

Went out to Hammerfall to grab Defiler's Leather Boots. Since the Inherited Insignia of the Alliance doesn't translate from Alliance to Horde I had to grab an Insignia of the Horde for 55 honor points. Still need to decide on glyphs then it's time to see what the fields of battle are like today.

4.0 Druid -- Boomkin with Int, Resto with no Tree

With the big patch out today I'm looking at a solid week of reviewing all ten toons. Both fun and tedious, but I need to get it done fast. If I'm going to switch mains then I'll want to alert the guild right away. So Aenara is first.

Moonkin

Sources
Druid: Balance PvE (updated for 4.0.1)
*Patch 4.0 Guide*
Moonkin Guide 4.0.1

Talents/Glyphs

WowHead

• Heard some interesting mana arguments (post 80) where it might make sense to drop Owlkin Frenzy if it's not getting triggered enough by mob mechanics along with skipping Blessing of the Grove. This allows four points that can be put into Moonglow and Furor (MMO Champion)
• Eclipse. The base Eclipse bonus is 25%, and the 12% from Total Eclipse stacks on top of that. The damage bonus is multiplicative. Spells provide Eclipse energy when they land. Eclipse ends after the cast that takes you to 0 energy; the last spell is still affected.
• Moonfury: Damage increase stacks multiplicatively. Due to the odd critical bonus stacking rules, the total crit bonus for affected spells if you use a Chaotic meta is 209%.
• Balance of Power: Your base Spirit is not included in the hit rating conversion, only bonus Spirit (green number in the tooltip).
• Sunfire: Identical to Moonfire in all respects except appearance and damage type. Affected by Glyph of Moonfire, Glyph of Starfire, Genesis, Lunar Shower, Nature's Grace, and Shooting Stars. Sunfire and Moonfire overwrite each other on the same target. There is currently a bug where Sunfire has a base tick rate of 3s instead of 2s, and is not affected by haste.
• Lunar Shower: If you don't have the buff, it only appears when you cast Moonfire or Sunfire. Once the buff is on you, it stacks and refreshes whenever you move. So if you are not moving and cast two consecutive Moonfires, the second will be affected by one stack of the buff, but to go higher, you need to move.
• Heart of the Wild: Stacks multiplicatively with Mark of the Wild.

Resulting Spell Coefficients and Damage Multipliers

Overall damage multiplier (Nature/Arcane): 1.08 (Earth and Moon) * 1.02 (Earth and Moon) * 1.03 (Arcane Empowerment) * 1.25 (Moonfury) * 1.1 (Moonkin Form) * 1.02 (Balance of Power)= 1.591.
Haste multiplier, before haste rating: 1.05 (Moonkin Form). Multiply this by (1 + HasteRating/3279) to obtain final haste ratio.
Crit Chance: 5% (Leader of the Pack) + 5% (Improved Scorch) = 10%, added to whatever you see reported in your character sheet (Nature's Majesty is included there already).

Stats

Weights
Intellect:
Spellpower:
Hit rating/Spirit:
Haste rating:
Critical strike rating:
Mastery rating:

Stat Value Caps

Hit: Against a level 83 target, with all buffs, we need 446 hit rating (17%) to cap at 100%. To check your hit rating, just mouse over it on your character sheet--it already includes the bonus hit from Balance of Power. Against an 82, 81, or 80 target, the caps are 158, 132, and 105 rating respectively.

Haste: Now that Wrath is a 2s base cast, it cannot run up against the 1s GCD minimum at any reasonable level of haste. There is a weak haste cap where the GCD hits 1.0s with Nature's Grace active. This requires 1.5/(1.05*1.15) - 1 = 24.22% haste, or 795 haste rating.

At certain levels of haste, our DoT's gain extra ticks. With 3/3 Genesis and Moonkin Form, and no Glyph of Starfire, they get an 11th tick at 365 haste rating, a 12th tick at 712 rating, and a 13th tick at 1059 rating. When affected by Nature's Grace, the 14th tick comes at 493 rating, the 15th tick at 795 rating, and the 16th tick at 1097 rating.

Overall, these softcaps are far less important than in WLK. Only the hit cap should be a significant factor in gear selection.

Reforging
Reforging allows you to change 40% of one secondary stat on an item into another secondary stat that's not already present. As noted above, the usual order of secondary stats by value is:

1. Spirit (technically better than Hit since it can occasionally give you mana).
2. Hit rating (until cap).
3. Haste rating.
4. Crit rating.
5. Mastery rating.

You should reforge whichever is the lowest-ranked stat on item up to the highest-ranked one that it doesn't already have. The only situation that's not obvious is when the hit cap is involved. If you need hit, reforge crit/mastery to hit on pieces that have those stats first, before you reforge haste. If you have excess hit, reforge hit/Spirit to haste wherever possible.

Gems
Red: Brilliant Cardinal Ruby (+20 Intellect)
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine (+12 Spell Power and +10 Haste Rating)
Blue: Purified Dreadstone (+12 Spell Power and +10 Spirit)

Eclipses

Lunar eclipse increases the damage of

• Starfire
• Moonfire
• Starfall
• Starsurge

Solar eclipse increases the damage of:

• Wrath
• Insect Swarm
• Sunfire
• Typhoon
• Starsurge
• Hurricane

AddOns

DoTimer
Balance Power Tracker
Quartz

Not Yet Updated for Cata
SquawkAndAwe
SquawkHard
Ovale
ForteXorcist

Links

YouTube Arythorn has a few PTR videos on the DPS rotations and output
The Moonkin Repository
Druid Resource list for 4.0.1

Restoration

Sources
*Patch 4.0 Guide*

Talents/Glyphs

WowHead

Still sad over the changes to resto so I'm going to put this off. Regrowth has been destroyed. Only one Lifebloom can be out. Treeform is on a CD. No more ticking poison removal.

There are good things. All the hots can crit. Treeform effects are great. Remove Corruption is an all-in-wonder like Shaman.

I'll prolly be main healing on the shaman at this point.

Back Into the Thick of It

So Martini's GM informed me last night that he needs me back in Enhancement since our regular Death Knight population has dwindled to zero. It always annoys me how he prioritizes melee DPS over the casters. Currently we don't have a Demonology Warlock for Demonic Pact, yet he hasn't asked our sole regular Lock to change from Destruction.

At the moment I can't make a compelling argument to retain my favored spec since another Elemental Shaman joined. He appears to know what he's doing plus attends regularly. Though I am doing more DPS, it's only a gear thing. Plus my Enhancement offset is nearly as good as my Elemental. So it looks like I'll be at Rogue and DK elbows again with Spirit Wolves howling.

It's been months since I've dusted off the melee gear or even thought about the Enhancement rotation… errr, priority system. Figured I needed to visit Elitist Jerks for some review. I'd noticed an Enhancement Shaman in the Druid's guild, Jinnä, do some impressive DPS that involved a lot more Fire Nova than I remembered mine ever showing.

Instead of heading directly to the Think Tank summary I started in the Class Mechanics forum where I found an interesting thread, [Enhancement] BiS gear and set-up discussion (3.3 and onward). The first thing that startled me was seeing this ability priority order:

1. Maelstrom Weapon x 5 stacks - Lightning Bolt
2. Flame Shock
3. Stormstrike if debuff not active
4. Lightning Shield if not active
5. Fire Elemental
6. Magma Totem if not active
7. Spirit Wolves
8. Shamanistic Rage
9. Earthshock
10. Stormstrike
11. Lava Lash
12. Fire Nova
13. Magma Totem
14. Lightning Shield

Good God. I have to state for the record that this kind of shit is what makes me hate Enhancement. Look at all of these fucking abilities to monitor—busy, busy, busy! Further, they have to be kept readily accessible on your bars since you have to maximize your GCD use. And naturally all this has to be done while maintaining raid awareness so you are not dying from standing in the proverbial fire. *sigh*

Whining aside, I was very surprised to see Flame Shock at the number two spot. Then I noticed that the gear list included the "caster" trinket (Bizuri's Totem of Shattered Ice). I'd heard of this relic being used by healers but for some reason it surprised me to see it on melee. Haste seems to be the sweet stat on all upper-geared classes regardless of role or talent specialization anymore. While I really like have my attack power break 11k with Totem of the Avalanche, I suppose I could give this a shot.

The talent build on this thread was also a little disconcerting. Glyph of Feral Spirit and Glyph of Stormstrike were familiar. I'd laughed the Glyph of Flame Shock out of Elemental use many patches ago so seeing it here made me laugh out loud. Jinnä is using Glyph of Fire Nova so I'm going to have to keep an eye on this choice. I may try to sneak in Glyph of Lava Lash or Glyph of Windfury Weapon for old time's sake.

As for the actual talents, I see extreme pains were taken at avoiding any mana conservation. Namely Elemental Focus, Shamanistic Focus, and Improved Stormstrike were not chosen. This is where I see reality clashing with theory. While Shamanistic Rage makes filling up a mana bar trivial at my gear level, it does still require something to smack for seven to ten seconds. Boss encounters don't always allow that. Yet the above priority list will be making damn sure I'm using my mana.

So while I agree with all three points in Improved Shields, I don't feel that a human dealing with latency can really make use of one point in Reverberation. Where to put this stray point? Elemental Focus and Shamanistic Focus are too specific. I considered Ancestral Knowledge for extra mana, Elemental Warding for slight damage reduction, or Totemic Focus since I'm always dropping totems. But Initially I'm going with Improved Stormstrike because it will have the most consistent use and provides the most generalized return.

I would like to peruse the standard summary in the Think Tank, but I'm currently getting a "502 Bad Gateway" error trying to access it. That's fine. It's going to take me an hour just to respec and figure out my bag space. Carrying around three entire sets of gear is difficult for a pack-rat like me. *snicker* Probably going to have to re-gem everything once I get Rawr to review things. *sigh*

Instance Demands

The all Shaman crew is moving along quite well yet I can feel myself approaching a wall. They've been leveling so fast their gear is rapidly getting behind. Plus I've been dorking around in Zul'Farrak. The Enhancement Shaman is only 53 so if enough mobs are ganging up on her, it gets nasty. Especially when a ranged mob decides to run…

This is good though. I've had it pretty easy outside questing so far. There's been no reason to put together any real synergy. Yet instancing in the Outlands is going to require it, so it's time to start looking at what works. While it's highly amusing to open with Chain Lightning I find that it's not wise. In ZF specifically, I find a solid lightning bolt volley against Blooddrinkers was good to open. After the first cast I drop a set of Grounding Totems then a set of Stoneclaw Totems. Then I go back to finishing off the melee in range while the casters waste their mana.

Though I had two embarrassing deaths, I never wiped. Did the whole Troll Nation encounter without a problem and Ghazrilla dropped so everyone has their Carrot on a Stick now. Managed to get all the other collect quests done, too. Even though it was a ton of Troll Tempers, the quest experience has been very worthwhile.

Priest Review

The next time I'm forced to spec Sloosh healing I'm going to give this this 10/51/0 spec a shot. I hate not having Inner Focus and Meditation, but the new Surge of Light and Guardian Spirit sound pretty fun; haven't been that deep in the Holy Tree forever. Divine Providence seems focused on spells I wouldn't use as much, so I might trade it for Serendipity and two points in Test of Faith. Twin Disciplines is of dubious worth but it's better than the nerfed Unbreakable Will.

If I ever manage to get back to PvP I'm going to start with this 56/5/0 spec. It's a really big departure from the routine to skip on Mental Strength and Power Infusion. I don't like the PI change so I went for Improved Divine Spirit. The way it reads, I also liked Enlightenment over Rapture even though Disc is classically horrible at mana efficiency. Penance really didn't interest me but the last point I had wouldn't really fit anywhere else so I'll try it. Will have to watch some high rated priests for additional insight.

I'm currently raiding with a 5/0/56 spec. Having three points in Shadow Affinity is probably overkill with the built-in 30% threat reduction of shadow form, so I may be trying Psychic Horror or Improved Shadow form when I can. It's frustrating having a Raid Spec and PvP spec so close together because I would trying PvP Shadow. Yet if I have to respec anyway, might as well stay with Disc.

After the Novelty

On Dual-Boxing.com's wiki entry on Boosting I noticed a link to their forums entitled: 1-60 in 1 day 10 hours. Basically it was commentary around a message on the WoW forums that began with

Gundude < Grizzly > Destromath

This hunter at lvl 61 - 1 bar from 62 has 2 days / played. Normally I get to 70 just under 4 days slash played. If really trying I'm sure it would be possible to hit 60 in 20 hours and 70 in 2 days 20 hours slash played.

The secret?

Simple.

Make your way to lvl 8 then go to RFC or Deadmines. Invite a full group (for full xp bonus) then have your lvl 70 mage friend AoE it. Enjoy lvling every 10-15 mins.

At 20.... go to SM Cath/Arm (switch between them and reset) Continue this process until lvl 40. Enjoy lvls every 30-45mins. (Use a mage with mana absorbtion to AoE it, keep a full group for full xp bonus)

At 40....go to ZF. You need to learn the pulls if using a 70 mage to AoE. LoS big groups then AoE. Make sure you have healers to in your party to heal the mage - lvling past 40 requires healers to be in the group. ALSO IMPORTANT - Bring a class such as a Druid to moonfire healing totems the trolls drop, this must be done or you will die. Enjoy lvling every 40-55mins.

At 50...go to LBRS. Now use a WARRIOR*** Warrior smashes the instance with a 2 hand and flexes. Bring a full group with healers. I perfer to bring a feral druid to say in feral form so the warrior gets 5% extra crit and heals himself. Shamans for heals and WF totem will increase your speed at clearing the instance as well. I do a set route and skip much of the instance but maintain a very fast lvl pace. Enjoy lvls every 50-60mins.

At 55....go to Ramparts. Still using a warrior - aim for the same group setup (leader of pack/WF totem/heals). Rampart runs should be 20-25 mins long and at 120k+ a hour xp is wonderfull. Enjoy lvls every 50-70 mins.

60+ I stop power lvling and enjoy questing in the outlands. Your call. Ramparts will still give 110k+ xp an hour up until lvl 64.

I don't really see the warrior happening in LBRS. The Feral druid in the group is an interesting idea. Still, there's no knowing what classes you're leveling; it's totally possible to not have a healer at all. That hole aside, his post generated eleven pages of feedback that was mostly “I want to do this!” or “the real question here is have you ever touched a snatch in your life” yet there was one handy expansion by Felsik of Drenden:

Frost shield up, rank 1 arcane explosion keeps them on you. Use mage armor instead of ice armor, you don't want frostbite procing all over the place and freezing those lowbie mobs behind you.

The easy dungeons, like RFC through to about SM armory you can do massive pulls with this style, just make sure the lowbies being powerleveled stay close, since you'll be moving very far through the instance with alot of mobs on you.

Usually there will be caster types, so when you want to 'stop' to perform the mass AOE kill, you LOS the group just around a wall so casters are forced to chase. Thats when you frost nova, cone of cold, and start spamming max rank arcane explosions for the kill.

While I'm having a lot of fun running the pack around on my own right now, I could see doing this for a second team. Since my main account is full I could use Decimate to run instances for four new ones on the other accounts. Will probably want a stronger machine to handle that level of pulling.

There were also suggestions that a Prot Pally could pull the whole armory. Favor doesn't have the gear but it might be fun to look into. Even just once it might be fun to see that level of destruction. At level 80 I'm sure it would be trivial.

Level 15 Wasn't Progress

Guild raided BT so I wasn't able to spend much time with the Shaman. Had the pouch with the torch and transport orb all ready when I did switch over. Went over to the island in the extreme South West of Azuremyst then used the orbs to pop back to the turn-in elemental. Wasn't too bad getting Fire Totems done.

Got the guild formed. I ran the charter down to the Mages in Elwynn forest yet when they tried to sign the charter, it said they had already signed. Guess that signatures are account based. *sigh* Ended up sitting on the Stormwind Bank steps and begging in trade with 5g a signature as incentive. Took about twenty minutes.

Still staying pretty hung up on gear. I've always been bad about twinking so I waste time making things. Like I had the Druid farm 150 pieces of light leather along with hides so I could make Moonglow tunics and four other pieces of leather. That was time better spend questing and killing, so I'm going to stay focused going forward.

Decided to try a different resolution. The wide screen is nice yet I figured I could do a higher resolution if I did the standard 4:3 ratio. Settled on 1152x864. Was still able to run the four clients without much difficulty. Also, I didn't bother to drag the slaves onto the other screen. I kept all four stacked on top of each other. Used the mouse and the task bar to switch between clients and it worked really well.

Despite less time I still managed to get all but the last slave up to Wool bandages (80)—damn that took a lot of linen cloth to do. Did the Kessel Run just because. *snicker* I took screen shots of them all on elephants yet something about having the clients stacked or the new resolution was unhappy. The screenshots I got were of characters other than the one that had focus. Annoying but an interesting quirk.

Been reading more and I'm going to want to try a mixed group eventually. Spec'n my Druid as Balance would be really great for the aura. Also thinking I could use the Pally to tank while the shaman throw down the damage. I would really like to work out a mixed group though. Priest and Druid for buffs along with the Pally to AoE tank. Only two DPS at that point but I but a Mage and Shaman would round it out perfectly. We'd have all the major buffs, too. Something I will think on.

Tomorrow I do think I will try five clients. I have a Hunter at 18 that I'd like to get a few levels on. Hoping that the RAF bonus extends to all party members.

The Hand of Argus has a pretty convincing Blood Elf costume going. Hell, one is even Male now!

Playing With Myself

On our guild forum one of the members posted about their experience dual-boxing. They went into some of the details about how they configured the machine, the broadcasting software they use, what macros they created, screen layout, and add ons. I remember hearing about someone defending an AV GY with five Elemental Shaman over a year ago but never thought much about it. With the game in gradual decline I thought about it now. It's always hell finding a tank or a healer if no one in the guild is around. So why not group with myself?

Headed off to the Wiki to review their multiboxing page. Gave a good review of Blizzard's official take on the practice along with some of the general theories. I then continued on to the hardware recommendations which was sorta scary. The author goes over boxes, custom KVMs, and mice then throws out a $5k sticker. Having built PCs for a number of years it sounded a little unreasonable. The software overview had a number of recommendations but make no mention of Octopus.

After about three hours of research I finally threw my hands up and wanted to try it. My primary machine does okay:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775
2x 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Western Digital Caviar 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

I copied my current WoW folder then configured it to be windowed with lower video options. Having two accounts already, I used the Recruit-A-Friend program to get three trial accounts. It will be handy to have extra XP/abilities plus some Zhevra mounts. *snicker* After reading Lightning Overload I wanted to create Alliance Shaman but trial accounts don't have Burning Crusade. Opted to start out with Mages.

The 3.0.2 patch ended up working against me. Since a lot more is stored on the server, I couldn't copy layout, config, and macros around the various WTF subfolders. I also was getting hung up on creating focus macros so after two hours I finally stopped and settled with a fairly simple assist-n-blast setup. My main shaman is already 51 so I'll only need four accounts running for a while.

I was a little nervous launching four instances of the WoW client yet everything worked rather well. I kept my master account on the big screen in front of me then moved the three slaves to my side monitor. The primary Octopus setup guide was a little too terse so I ended up following Dual-boxing.com's guide instead. Somewhere around 6am I was giggling with glee as four synchronized Rank 1 Fireballs would hurl towards unsespecting Kobold vermin. Even got my first nub asking, “How are you doing that?”

So now I need to go grab three more World of Warcraft Battlechests. Mages have tons of potential with incredible burst damage and it would be fun to figure out focus macros for CC'ing. Yet Shaman would just own. Mail-wearing, Lightning throwing, Chain Healing bitches that will rotate Heroism and drop five Fire Elementals at once. Wild times ahead!

3.0.2, Joyous Woe Unto Me

Overall I haven't been thrilled with the patch's impact to my characters, but it brought along a ton of great improvements.

My biggest complaint is Spell Power. With a caster main it blured all my lines. Two days after the patch I still hadn't decided what pieces of my “healing” set are now DPS and what I could disenchant as redunant. Still feels weird wearing a Ring of Calming Waves for DPS and I'm annoyed that things like my Nethervoid Cloak went down to 43 Spell Power from 53 Shadow Damage. It's crazy that my Light's Justice is nearly as mean as my Hammer (with the Healing enchant being higher than the Spell Power enchant).

So I'm down to base 1209 Spell Power from over 1350 Shadow Damage. Was eager to hit BT last night to see how things would work. Unfortunately nearly 35 people showed up and I rolled the lowest sit-out roll since I joined the guild. *sigh* Instead of getting four or five bosses down, they cleared the whole thing without me. Was sorta pissed since I've been there pretty solid and was looking forward to seeing our first Illidan kill.

I got into a pug for the Shattered Halls Heroic Daily. My &ldqup;OMFG! Heroic PUG!” dread quickly vanished as we mowed through it without CC'ing. Seems like warriors are fixed as a little gnome half in blues only died once. *snicker* Without any consumables I was seeing raid-level crits, so I guess the patch notes about evquivlency were fair. I wonder if it's the same for the healers after the stated “all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells.”

My problem was running out of mana. Running the talent calculator a few weeks ago the Vampric Touch change is the nerf it appeared to be. While the Misery and Shadow Weaving nerfs were disappointing, the VT nerf has me concerned over Shadow Priest utility in raids. The days of stacking four SPs are definitely over. Yet it seems like DPS may step up to compensate. For instance, on the last boss in SH I was actually top on DPS… above a decently geared Warlock and Mage. Will be able to tell more in at the next raid where some of my addons are working again. There's a new cast sequence to establish and maybe Mind Flay crits will just rock.

The impact of Spellpower consolidation on gear deserves some more jawing. For the Priest it's going to free up a lot of space as there's little point in a Shadow or Disc set with regards to PvP gear. Though I haven't had to the addons to analyze things completely, I'm pretty sure my PvE DPS set will be damn close to my healing set. But extra bag space don't help with loot distribution. Merging damage and healing now places all those classes at odds with each other, meaning upgrades will take longer to acquire and creating potential loot whore bad blood.

Though I'd heard about the removal of priest-specific talents I was still sad to see them really gone. Got used to using Feedback occasionally and Desperate Prayer was so godly in PvP, though Dwarf, Dranei, and Forsaken priests were certainly hit harder. It was pretty shitty how the patch notes made zero mention of this. As a Human I do like the new “Every Man for Himself” racial though the way it's worded makes it sound like it will blow my trinket. If it does, that may mean freeing up that trinket slot for something else.

The down-ranking nerf really annoyed me. From a threat or cast-time stand point I'll still have some lower spells on my bar with all my casters, but it's still a mean-spirited nerf. Why even have mana at all if all the spells are going to be gutted like that? PC spells should have a mana percentage with no ranks where the effect numbers will level-scale.

Got a little time in with the Shaman. Definitely missing the flat DPS increase of Rockbiter but I'm dealing okay with the switch to Flametongue for Lava Lash. It's nice to have another DPS instant to go along with Stormstrike since the shock cooldowns now go to threat reduction. Do miss the proc sounds of Shamanistic Focus but the mana reduction is cool. Definitely liking the change to the Strength of Earth totem and can hardly wait for the Wolf Pet talent. Seems like Elemental and Healing all got solid boosts, too. The only solid nerf I've heard about so far was the Heroism debuff.

As for the other classes I just haven't had time. Did put every single point into Frost on my Mage but only did some exploring and herbing so far. Fairly certain I'm going to keep the druid Feral but there sure are some fun things in Balance now. Going to finish leveling the Pally as Ret but I have no idea about the damn Warlock.

Having Macros stored on the server is really nice. There are a number of channeling, targetting, and focus macros that I was sometimes lazy about keeping in sync. Adding real support to the “hidden” focus system was long overdue. Hopefully the threat system revamp was done well. It's certainly nice to see support built into the default interface. The red portrait outline is handy but the little “Threat Changed to You!” Scrolling Combat Texts are awesome!

The Calendar feature is one of those Blizzard niceities. There was really no reason to put something like that in but they did. And they did it well. It's very handy to see what's coming up from the in-game world perspective. Being able to have events from the guild makes it invaluable. The Complete Trade Skill link is another similar bonus as it wasn't really needed but it's sure damn handy. After a while, these two features will be seen as integral.

While the Spellpower thing freed up a lot of bag space from redudant gear, it was nothing compared to the Vanity Pet and Mount interface. It's so fun to have all those stupid pets available whenever instead of picking three or four to take with me. Class-colored overhead panes is very convenient plus the combat log changes will make meters a lot more accurate.

PvP Flag Timer... about fucking time!! I got so tired of being on pins and needles while flagged in random places. Never fails but when I'm on a cloth class with a PvP flag up, I fucking attract rogues from miles away. It's like a fucking beacon shooting up into the sky that writes on the clouds, “ZOMG! COME GANK ME PLZ!” On the Priest it's usually okay with stealth detection. As soon as I hear the stealth sound, I fear, bubble, and DoT while running. The mage typically has Ice Block ready but the Warlock is usually toast.

While I spent significant time on Spellpower I close my diatribe with Achievements. Have to hand it to Blizzard… they really know their subscriber base. There are SO MANY THINGS in there to do. Then you can compare yourself to those sitting next to you. It's an ePeen extravaganza. *sigh* Stupid game. I can hardly wait until my Wrath Deluxe Edition gets shipped to me next-day air. *rolls eyes*

Hunter Twinking in the Teens

Running with the Lowbies

The teen bracket is definitely fun. There's a lack of bullshit. Without mounts, limited mobilty means shit isn't getting away and even organzied players can't be everywhere at once. No plate armor. Each class has parts of their defining characteristics, but nothing deterministic.

• Druids can't Stealth, cheetah away like pussies, Innervate, or instaUberHeal.
• Hunters can't aim shot, mana drain, flare, feign or move fast.
• Mages can't PoM/Pyro, Ice Block, or Slow.
• Paladins don't have their uber bubble, can't cleanse magic, nor can they DPS.
• Priests miss their serious healing or damage specs, can't Mind Flay, and can't Mind Control.
• Rogues can't double Sprint, nub-Cloak or use Poison.
• Shaman can't dual weild, only have two types of totems, nor can they go wolf, and no goddam Frost Shock!
• Warlocks can't go DoT wild, have no AoE fear, miss out on Nubcoil, and have the semi-useless PvP pets.
• Warriors can't charge if they're in combat nor can they silence.

An extravagently geared character can rock shit hardcore since each class isn't at full strength.

Why a Hunter?

I find Druids and Rogues very formidable in the teen bracket and Warlocks to a degree, yet I observe Hunters constantly dominating. Their ranged damage infrequently misses and does considerable physical damage, which isn't resistable and is hardly mitigated with limited armor ratings. Multishot spreads this to three adjacent targets every ten seconds. Concussive Shot, Wing Clip, and Boar charge are incredible for flag recovery. The Immolation trap is a pleasant surprise for Rogues. With high Agility and Aspect of the Monkey, Mongoose Bite can be mean with a good top-end weapon. Plus the pet's stats scale with the twinking gear… it's like facing two twinks at once!!

Talents for the Hunter were pretty easy to decide on. Under survival, three points went immediately into Hawk Eye for the extra six yards of range. No other class can touch me when I start killing them. The next five points went into Marksmanship's Lethal Shots. This was a debatable expendature since the gear will be making the crit% high already, but it's a solid DPS increase. The final two points went into Beast Mastery's Improved Aspect of the Hawk. The chance to proc is 10% with a twelve second duration regardless, so the two points provide a 6% increase in attack speed. It might be wise to move 3% from crit to push this up to the 15% haste maximum. Casters would die so fast.

Pets

Shadowswine

It's a foregone conclusion that Hunters have a Boar for PvP. They have enhanced Armor, slightly enhanced Health, and decreased DPS. Yet none of that really matters since they are the only pet that has the Charge skill. Picked up a Longsnout since I wanted the black texture to fit into the shadowy stealth concept.

MyFangsUrAss

I really wanted a Dragonhawk but when I snuck into the Undercity, I couldn't click on the transporter to Silvermoon City! Didn't have any Warlock friends to pop the Hunter up to Zul'Aman, so I decided to grab the other BC newbie pet, a Ravager. They have very enhanced DPS, slightly enhanced Armor, and decreased Health. The drop in Health is easily mitigated by my twinked Stamina. Picked up a Ravager Specimen in the Dranei newbie area since there are no dark textures available.

Third Pet: TBD

Shadowshot

Head

( ) Green Tinted Goggles
( ) Lucky Fishing Hat

Neck

( ) Sentinel's Medallion

Shoulders

( ) Serpent's Shoulders

Back

(√) Miner's Cloak
( ) Sentry Cloak

Chest

( ) Blackened Defias Armor
(√) Tunic of Westfall
(√) Armor of the Fang

Wrist

( ) Forest Leather Bracers

Hands

( ) Blackened Defias Gloves
(√) Gloves of the Fang

Waist

(√) Blackened Defias Belt
(√) Belt of the Fang
(√) Deviate Scale Belt
( ) Girdle of the Blindwatcher

Legs

(√) Blackened Defias Leggings
(√) Smelting Pants
( ) Leggings of the Fang
(√) Dark Leather Pants

Feet

(√) Blackened Defias Boots
(√) Footpads of the Fang
(√) Feet of the Lynx

Fingers

(√) Seal of Wrynn
( ) Protector's Band

Trinkets

( ) Insignia of the Alliance
( ) Arena Grand Master

Weapons

(√) Thief's Blade
(√) Buzzer Blade
(√) Tail Spike
( ) Taskmaster Axe
(√) Emberstone Staff
( ) Sentinel's Blade
( ) Protector's Sword
( ) Lorekeeper's Staff
( ) Twisted Chanter's Staff

Ranged

(√) Hand of Argus Crossfire
(√) Venomstrike
( ) Lil Timmy's Peashooter
( ) Outrunner's Bow

Other

(√) 17 Pound Catfish
(√) Chicken Egg
(√) Quiver of the Night Watch
( ) Silverwing Battle Tabard
( ) Dartol's Rod of Transformation

Priestly Talents Refresh

Kevanassa found my old Priest spec notes and got riled up, contesting a few of my assertions. And it's true. I've needed to revisit it for a while. For instance: Mindflay. The novely of being Disc with Mindflay has nearly worn off. Mainly Sloosh would use it while waiting for Fear's 30-second cooldown eon. If a melee was on a fleeing Hennesy she would slow them down. With Hamstring/Crippling/Wing Clip and/or resists, it's not terribly effective. In fact, lately she would resort to Mind Control as it's amusing and effective to break their momentum, throw them off the bridge or move them away from their team mate.

So yeah. It's time to retire my Mindflay Disc spec (48/2/11) so I reviewed some other specs. Started at WoWWiki.

Disc PvP Healer (47/14/0)
A build with increased survivability. Strong buffs, including Pain Suppression and Power Infusion. Mana Burn is the strongest spell to use against opponents if you get caught in a 1v1 situation. A .5 second Mass Dispel, as well as Improved Power Word: Shield, Reflective Shield, and Healing Focus make this a very effective healing build in PvP.

Divine Fury makes no sense to me. In PvP Flash Heals are best for non-instant healing. 1.5 seconds of breathing room is hard to get as it is, but 2.5 seconds is way too long. Inspiration is also of dubious value since the significant boost on cloth is nearly as meaningless as it would be for plate. It might help Feral druids yet that's three points with a pretty narrow use. Those three points should have gone to Blessed Recovery.

How would I fix this build? Give up both DF and Inspiration along with Holy Nova in favor of five points in Mental Agility (Disc is so mana intensive, let's keep those Shields, Prayers of Mending, and Renew cheap!) and a full five points in Silent Resolve. The remaining three points are a tough call. Absolution is nice to make those dispels even cheaper along with lightening the heavy cost off Mass Dispel. The three points would also be useful in Spell Warding to trim off 6% of all spell damage. Personally I would put the final three points in Blackout. Getting a 3 second stun for spamming 23 mana rank 1 Shadow Word: Pain is godly.

The only lingering problem is Enlightenment. On the surface, simultaneously boosting Stamina, Intelligence, and Spirit sounds wondrous. Yet I've read commentary that's convinced me a 5% stat gain for five points is a nominal benefit at best, even with 2.4's changes to Spirit. It would be wise to take two of those points to max Blackout. As above, the remaining three points could go either into Absolution or Spell Warding. With the focus on Disc PvP healing, Absolution makes most sense.

PvP "Face Melter" (17/0/44)
This build is a pure PvP build. The build is only slightly viable for raiding, but in the new arena system, as well as normal PvP, it will truly "melt faces."

Beautiful. I hate losing Shadow Power's +15% crit, but this spec makes perfect sense to me. It's a pity Sloosh never seems to fill a DPS slot.

Common Disc PvP Healer (livelong build) (41/20/0)
This build seems to be the best current build for PvP priest healers as it allows you to take plenty of hits while still doing your job. This build is also the most popular among the 25th and up top rated priests in 2v2 3v3 and 5v5!

Once again a slant towards the big heals with Divine Fury and Improved Healing. While it would be wonderful to have Blessed Recovery, this much Holy makes little sense to me in BGs and even less in Arenas. These points belong back over in Disc for Improved Power Word: Shield and Reflective Shields.

I think the spec would make sense for main healing in a 5v5, yet I see it in 2v2. The 9th 2v2 rated team in my battle group and on my server is actually a Priest and a Warlock. The Priest uses a variant of the livelong build above. But they are Dwarf and Gnome while Hennesy and Sloosh are both Human. Perception doesn't compete with Stoneform and Escape Artist.

Another Priest a few slots down was pretty close to livelong yet he worked in Blessed Recovery and, of all things, Improved Inner Fire; at least he had the shields. Kevanassa mentioned playing with IIF and felt the same way I do—useless. Maybe in the buffed armor of full Vengeful (which he does have) I'd consider it, but I'm still dubious.

My Dwarf Priest is still 59 and it might be worthwhile getting him to 70 to let Sloosh retire from PVP. I would miss the lovely Spirit bonus, but it would be worth losing Feedback and Perception for Stoneform and Chastise while retaining Desperate Prayer. Alliances sucks in BGs so badly I'm not sure I'd have the patience to re-farm all the Vindicator gear. It might work if I kept him in the 59 bracket for a while though. It's less honor but there are a enough Alliance twinks for wins which would mean more tokens/honor in the long run.

Anyway. I'm going to ask Kev for some feedback around this Disc spec (51/5/5). Want to hold onto Blackout and the initial points in Holy. I like the shields and I'm going for Improved Spirit since it helps me and Hennesy (so long as it doesn't get dispelled, heh). In the interim, I have two green gems to replace and a few enchants to get done.